28 



GROWING GOLD. 



of equal violence had never before visited our 

 island ; but to estimate its fury by the number 

 of trees that have fallen before it, is to ''jump 

 upon wrong conclusions ;" for this reason, 

 because in the olden time woods and forests 

 presented a mu*ch denser and mightier pha- 

 lanx, if I may be allowed the expression, to 

 the winds that warred against them. 



They who do not attend to the subject 

 probably pass it over with the simple excla- 

 mation of " what a dreadful storm ! " but 

 when the matter is rigidly examined, it will 

 be found that the storm was not so dreadful 

 as at first it appeared to be. The case 

 of Kensington Gardens for instance: — the 

 storm of 1824 and the trees cut down in the 

 spring of 1835 (see Morning Herald) caused an 

 opening ; trees which, perhaps, previously to 

 these falls of timber had hardly moved a twig, 

 had at the commencement of the recent gales 

 to bear the whole of their force ; being proba- 

 bly of greater length of stem, expansion of top, 

 and having but little roots, it was therefore 



